Singles Going Steady: Eels, Michael Jackson

5/14: THE EELS -- I once saw Mark Oliver Everett start a club show being carried through the crowd on someone's shoulders as he played harmonica. So that's the kind of entertainer he is. And a brilliant songwriter. Details: 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 14. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $42; $37 in advance. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.(Photo: Frederick M. Brown | Getty Images)

Welcome back to Singles Going Steady, a weekly playlist of songs we recommend you checking out this week (or more specifically, this very moment). Some were chosen because the artist is appearing in the Valley some time in the next week. Others were chosen because they're new. The only thing they have in common is that we enjoyed them and we thought you might enjoy them, too.

1. Eels, "Lockdown Hurricane"

Mark Oliver Everett of Eels is one of rock and roll's most underrated lyricists. On "Lockdown Hurricane," from this year's aptly titled "The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett," he paints a haunting portrait of a stubborn couple determined to ride out the hurricane warnings. Best line: "They tried to warn us / I didn't care / Said, 'Don't be stupid; get out of there' / And now I know it's much too late / Who will discover the remains?" Don't miss out on the opportunity to hear a set of songs as good as this one at the Crescent Ballroom.

A distorted guitar feeding back sets the tone for this mid-tempo rocker, which somehow manages to echo both Cracker and Dinosaur Jr. while still sounding like its own new thing. Stephen McBean (who also fronts Black Mountain) has the perfect drawl to drag out every line just long enough to give it character. And the honey-thick distortion does the rest. Don't miss their show at the Western in Scottsdale.

You know when country waltzes sound like everyone involved was drunk? This is one of those waltzes, which suits the first line line like an untucked cowboy shirt that's been tossed on and buttoned all crooked: "This is the ballad of drinking rye whiskey and sleepin' 'til 2 on a warm afternoon." Rhett Miller is in fine form on vocals and lyrics on this ragged highlight of their latest album, "Most Messed Up." And the Old 97's are playing the Crescent on Wednesday, May 7, so don't mess up by missing out.

Juliana Hatfield covering Elliott Smith for a tribute to the music of the films of Wes Anderson, whose use of music is among the many qualities that make his films so damn enjoyable? There's really nothing else to know except she sings it well and the chamber-pop arrangement here is brilliant, sounding more like Wes Anderson music than the Smith original, which showed up in "The Royal Tenenbaums."

The third song we've heard from the Black Keys' new release was captured lives at BBC Studios for Zane Lowe and it's easily my favorite of the three, a haunted ballad that starts off nice and sparse with a reverb-soaked guitar and Dan Auerbach aching his way through the opening line in a whispered falsetto and builds to a majestic climax that works the atmosphere like Pink Floyd in their space-rock prime.

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6. Say Hi, "All the Pretty Ones"

Eric Elbogen's has the perfect voice to tremble his way through wistful ballads such as this with just enough vulnerability to undercut his rather dim view of the pretty girls with "legs as long as galaxies." And you'd think he'd try a different kind of lover on by now, but he's too taken with their beauty. As he admits with a shrug in the final verse, "When hips just make the slightest twitch, we fall down."

Who knew Michael Jackson was so good at dance songs? Oh yeah, everybody. This posthumous release finds Jackson trading vocals with the man behind the biggest disco record of the past year, Justin TImberlake. And Timberlake doesn't engage in the spotlight-stealing antics that could sink a track like this, clearly just honored to be there, basking in the afterglow of an icon's outtakes.

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8. Saint Vitus, "The Bleeding Ground"

These doom-metal veterans hit the Sabbath hard on this sludge-tastic throwback to the slower-is-heavier template most post-Sabbath metal bands abandoned in favor of flash. And if you're chasing after that approach, it helps to have a riff as undeniable as what they're rocking here.

The second sample of "Sunbathing Animal" may not move as breathlessly as the title track, but faster isn't always better. And it's as though they've gone all limp. There's a definite punk-rock swagger at work in the verses, which are sneered with all the character we've come to look for in a Parquet Courts song. And those caustic eruptions of feedback-driven noise guitar are as punk as it gets. &amp;amp;amp;lt;!--iframe--&amp;amp;amp;gt;

10. Iggy Pop, Nick Cave and Thurston Moore, "Nobody's City"

Iggy Pop and Nick Cave swapping vocals on a Gun Club cover with guitar by Thurston Moore? The Gun Club couldn't hope for a more fitting tribute. Pop even throws in a shout-out to Jeffrey Lee Pierce before the song kicks in. And the squalling, distorted guitars are the perfect backdrop to the vocal performances by Pop and Cave.